Several environmental organizations, among them Marea Blava de Sant Adrià de Besòs (Barcelonès North) reported on Saturday through social networks a spill of a foamy substance in the Besòs river from the Endesa combined cycle plant. The company recognizes a fault in the emission of the anti-foaming liquid, but assures that the spill is not polluting.
Last Saturday, part of the Besòs river bed was filled with a large layer of foam that alarmed the neighbors and alerted the environmental organizations that quickly spread the spill through social networks. The City Council of Sant Adrià de Besòs also requested explanations from Endesa, which assured that it was not a polluting discharge.
Although the impact of the foam in the river awoke the memory of other extremely serious episodes, as reported by Endesa and confirmed by the Sant Adrià City Council, the foam was caused by the churning system of the water discharged by the refrigeration plant of the Combined Cycle Power Plant from Besòs to the river.
Usually, these water spills from the plant’s cooling are mixed with an antifoam substance to avoid situations like the one last Saturday. In this case, Endesa admits that the incident was caused by a technical failure in the mixture that caused the foam to disappear.
The Sant Adrià de Besòs City Council immediately requested a report from Endesa about what happened, but since “the explanations were not enlightening enough” they have demanded an extension on the causes of the spill.
